Review by Adam M on July 16, 2019.

Eluveitie have an ambitious album ahead of them here with 16 songs present.  They perform a folk influenced breed of melodic death metal and it brings an epic bravado to the table.  There is the use of other instrumentation like flutes and a combination of female and male singing.  The entire affair is fairly interesting, but nothing revolutionary.  Instead they make an impact with how solid their songwriting is. 

The band creates an interesting atmosphere with their folk inspired leanings.  With other melodic death metal releases, this album still holds its own with some charismatic emotions being put into the mix.  Though I did prefer the album by Bloodred Hourglass slightly, this is still one of the more interesting albums of the style in recent times.  The variety present keeps the album churning at all points and one can detect this from the word go and the first track, Ategnatos.  The band seems to be having a lot of fun and this always helps brighten the overall album.  There is a constantly shifting mindset the band has to craft something new and this is seen at every corner on the work.  This could still be improved with more focused song-writing as the band seems to go out on a tangent at times, but are still quite successful with their style.  It is epic and carries forth a great amount of emotion at all times. 

There aren’t many bands that combine folk and melodic death metal like this, so you should pounce on this album if you want a varied listen.  It’s not the best album melodic death metal has ever seen, but it is different enough that it definitely leaves an imprint.  Fans of both folk and melodic death metal will find something to like here and should grab Ategnatos as soon as possible.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10